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Body of slain Iraqi immigrant to be taken to Iraq for burial
March 26, 2012 | 11:04 am
The body of a 32-year-old Iraqi immigrant who was fatally beaten in her home in El Cajon is being taken to Iraq, where her father is a Shia Muslim cleric.
An official with the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Mich., told the Detroit Free-Press that the Iraq government is paying the cost of bringing the body of Shaima Alawadi to Iraq for a funeral and burial.
Meanwhile, the El Cajon police continue to investigate the killing as a possible hate crime. A note near Alawadi's body warned her to return to her native country and referred to her as a terrorist.
While the police are not labelling the killing as a hate crime, they are not ready to discount that possibility. No suspects have been named.
Alawadi immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s and lived in Dearborn before moving to El Cajon. Both areas have large Middle Eastern immigrant populations.
"Everybody is outraged" by the killing, Imam Husham Al-Husainy told the Detroit paper. "This is too evil, too criminal."
Alawadi was found unconscious Wednesday morning by her 17-year-old daughter. Alawadi and her husband had five children. Her husband reportedly had taken the younger children to school just moments before the attack.
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